Lawsuit halts US bitcoin exchange partnership

A partnership that sought to make it easy for Americans and Canadians to buy the virtual currency bitcoin has dissolved into a US$75 million lawsuit. Bitcoin startup CoinLab alleges that the largest bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox in Tokyo, breached a November 2012 agreement that would connect the companies' IT systems for North American bitcoin purchases. The suit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, alleges Mt. Gox failed to transfer the account of North American users, including login and password information, to CoinLab. Gawker posted a copy of the lawsuit which was not yet available on online court records. The suit also contends that despite an exclusivity agreement with CoinLab, Mt. Gox continued to court North American customers and accept new business. CoinLab, based in Seattle, had been strangely quiet in recently weeks in rega...